Smile Doctors Braces (Temple, Texas)

This picture is from Loopnet.
While some of the addresses along S.W. H K Dodgen Loop previously had different addresses, Golden Corral (2113 SW H K Dodgen Loop) appears to one of the restaurants that was built afterwards (and nothing there before it). Well, it was a Golden Corral at least, operating roughly from 1995 to 2011...and closing a few years before a new Golden Corral was built in 2013 on I-35. In 2013 a Chinese buffet, Royal Buffet, opened, and modified some of the entrances, but by the end of 2014 it was closed, and by April 2015, it was Central Texas Smile Doctors, which rebranded to "Smile Doctors Braces" between 2018 and 2019). This entry previously appeared at this page.

Temple Towne Center (Temple, Texas)

Many Staples stores have closed over the years, but this one still remains. (From the PDF linked below). I haven't done a deep dive into this shopping center yet. From what I can piece together it replaced a smaller shopping center anchored by Winn-Dixie around 2001, but no parts of the original center remain. The circa 2021 PDF I have on file features all of the junior anchors that are still there now (except for Bed Bath & Beyond getting replaced with HomeGoods) and McAlister's Deli moving from its strip mall spot to a stand-alone location at 2416 S.W. H.K. Dodgen Loop. This used to be a Fazoli's that was there from 2003 to 2014. Other than that the anchors seem to be pretty consistent. There's, from left to right, Staples, Shoe Carnival, Ross Dress for Less, Marshalls, HomeGoods, Ulta Beauty, Five Below (these two I believe were originally Goody's Family Clothing), Bath & Body Works (moved from the mall, used to be Rue21 Etc.), Petco, smaller stores, and Hobby Lobby.

The problem is that Temple is relatively poorly documented and when more information comes up I'll add it to this post. It probably wouldn't be covered at all if I had not vowed to dismantle this post.

Temple Mall (Temple, Texas)

The mall is mostly empty these days.
Located at 3111 S. 31st Street; while not on the H.K. Dodgen Loop list that we're trying to dismantle, I'd like to take time to cover another mall, Temple Mall. This is going to be a short one as I took pictures and did a deep dive (well, from what I could with the resources) which you can see here.

Convenient Stop & Grill (Milano, Texas)

Where does that wire lead down to?
One of my original intentions of this site was not just re-runs and reposts from Carbon-izer.com but new, original content. This is one of them, with Convenient Food Stop, a small grill/gas station/convenience store in Milano, Texas. Just west of the rebuilt CEFCO (future Casey's?) which in many ways fulfils what this station did, and a bit before the Dollar General down that way, was this gas station, which I photographed December 31, 2025. I was actually going to post this a few days ago but didn't want to do it so soon after another abandoned gas station.

I didn't want to get too close to the building, I approached it but those rafters are a favorite hangout for hornets.
Because of its rural status, information has been hard to find on this one. Based on some old tax filings it appears that this disappeared sometime in the late 1990s and has been abandoned since, and older records can't be found since it likely changed names. The gas canopy went up sometime by 1981 (possibly in the 1970s) but the building dates back to the 1950s (at least).

I can't find anything else on this one, including what gas brand, if any, it had, or previous pictures taken, so information is sparse. Please, write in anything if you have it.

The Barrington Suites (Temple, Texas)

Picture from 2017 from "Killeen 304", cropped. Source.
Expanding from the Southwest H.K. Dodgen Loop page (and originally appearing on Carbon-izer.com) is The Barrington Suites, a combination apartment/motel which always served as such and opened in 1984 originally. It sounds like it could be a winner in theory, with its close-to-Scott & White location for long-term (month) stays but reviews are mixed (as permanent motel room tenants is usually a disaster).

One thing that it could probably use to help sell the "motel" side of the business (and add some class to the residential side) is an on-site restaurant/coffee shop (which it desperately needs, but lacks). In doing research for this I found that while this is the only one of its type around there were once several others, with three in San Angelo alone. The one on Knickerbocker Road has been gone for years but old aerial photos shows it as looking almost identical (the other two are apartment buildings now, but look less similar).

UPDATE 05-13-2026: Removed Lowe's as part of redoing page for Carbon-izer.

Mazzio's Pizza in Temple (Temple, Texas)

This is the same scan (c. 1991) that appears on sister site Brazos Buildings & Businesses.
Another spin-off of the SW H.K. Dodgen Loop page, Mazzio's Pizza opened in Temple in 1984 with its address originally being 1906 Glendale Drive but became 1420 S.W. H.K. Dodgen Loop as that became a frontage road for the highway later. Unlike the College Station location which closed by late 1997, the Mazzio's Pizza remained and kept its older logo for years (I seem to remember it hanging onto it even into the late 2000s, though it had switched to the current logo by 2008). Sometime around late 2013 it was shuttered and replaced by "Henderson's" restaurant in 2015, which by November 2018 became another restaurant, Bay Street Steak & Grille; however by summer 2019 it was already gone. The new Denny's opened in fall 2020 and is the first in Temple since the one off I-35 (the old Kettle) closed. (See Carbon-izer's I-35 in Bell County page).

MarketPlace Shopping Center (Temple, Texas)

I would say this does more business than Temple Mall next door.
I've been trying to think of what to do for this site. I bounced around ideas (soft reboot and focus on a more consistent topic, refocusing on stuff off of highways instead of anything, a Texas-exclusive focus) but in the end I thought what I had been doing, is doing posts on a very small selection of buildings, not large directories, meaning posts like this will have to be broken up or removed. Already I did stuff like spin off Big's Meat Market from a larger Buda/Kyle topic.

As part of this new revamp, the focus is on MarketPlace Shopping Center in Temple. I've uploaded a PDF of the shopping center as of 2025 here (archived from here and wanted to discuss a few of the major tenants in more detail, particularly H-E-B, Kohl's, and the restaurants out front. It recycles content from Carbon-izer.com as well, though the future posts will have more care taken for them.

The Kohl's (located at 3170 S. 31st Street) started out as a Woolco in 1980 (moving from an I-35 location), then after the entire Woolco chain folded, it became a Montgomery Ward in 1983 and operating to the end of the chain's life (early 2001) but remained with signage up a few years afterward. The Kohl's opened in September 2011 according to this article and should be noted that as Montgomery Ward, its address was 3002A S. 31st Street. H-E-B is the other major anchor (opened in 1980) and I've been to it at least once, and it's been renovated more than once. I believe it was last renovated in the mid-2010s (before that, carrying circa-2000 decor) though I don't know the details of the store's opening. Many of the older tenants carry the 3002 address like H-E-B but the modern ones like Kohl's no longer do.

The three restaurants out front are also of interest.

Photo from Showcase.
The Whataburger (1415 SW H K Dodgen Loop) is perhaps the most interesting. I remember stopping at this location sometime in late 2016 or early 2017 after a day of outside work at a ranch. While the cold drink and the protein of the hamburger revived my spirits, I was intrigued by the large, "Playplace" part of the building, as if it had a playground at one point. The room was closed to the public (it was used as employee offices/storage, apparently) and while the thought of Whataburger having a playground wasn't out of the question (I seem to recall a kid's meal mascot, for instance) it hadn't actually occurred to me that it was in fact not a Whataburger to begin with, having been a Burger King opened in 1999 but closed within a decade. It was seized by U.S. Marshals in November 2004 (it did not reopen) and in November 2007 was reopened as a Whataburger. Before Whataburger was built, a Pizza Hut was here from 1991 to 1997. Before that I'm not sure, if anything, what was there. Next to it is Starbucks (1313 SW H K Dodgen Loop), opened as Golden Fried Chicken (Golden Chick) in 1999 and became Starbucks around April 2004 (I believe Golden Chick closed late 2003). You can see another photo of the Starbucks at StarbucksEverywhere.net. Finally, Taco Bell, at 1201 SW H K Dodgen Loop is the oldest of the three, and had changed its store number store number (2308) and address (3002 South 31st Street, the number of the whole plaza) in 2014 to the Dodgen Loop address and a new store number (30125) without rebuilding. Despite looking nothing like the original 1983 store, BCAD indicates the building is original to 1983 (just expanded).

The Original Olive Garden of Temple (Temple, Texas)

Apologies for being gone so long. I'd like to add another Carbon-izer import prompted by an email from Myron M. of Temple. The restaurant covered today is 1902 SW H K Dodgen Loop. It opened as an Olive Garden around 1991 and closed in 2002 (it eventually reopened with a new Temple location several years later).

Courtesy Portal to Texas History Online Its replacement, Yank Sing Chinese Restaurant, opened soon after. Yank Sing added a covered drive-up in order to closely resemble its Killeen location at 1705 East Central Texas Expressway (a former Luby's where 23 people were killed in a 1993 shooting) but the Temple location shuttered around 2019 (the last Yelp review was January 2019). Since then, it has been divided into two suites both with restaurants, Masfajitas in suite A (open 2022) Mario's Seafood in suite B (open 2023). They share common ownership (it's possible they share kitchen facilities).

Cactus Jack's (Temple, Texas)

Cactus Jack's in better times, October 2017 Street View Gather 'round for the tale of strange, sad tale of Cactus Jack's (300 SW H.K. Dodgen Loop in Temple, Texas): built in 1976 as "Market Street Cafe", which it was until the around 2000s, Cactus Jack's Steak House opened in 2003 (from numerous records including BBB and state taxpayer records) by a woman named Donna Passentino, but other references say 2005. Considering a reference to Market Street Cafe can be found in 2003, it's likely that Passentino bought Market Street Cafe in 2003 but closed it and renovated it into Cactus Jack's in 2005, as this article indicates.

Initially, the restaurant had a dinner menu with steaks and other entrees (it was "Cactus Jack's Steak House" after all); however, the death of Ms. Passentino in 2011 was the beginning of the end for Cactus Jack's. By 2012, the restaurant dropped the food options and was simply a bar with no mention of food. (The "Steak House" remained on the signage). Signage outside mentioned looking for a new food partner to convert it to a Mexican restaurant, and it did get a food partner—in 2013, it became Cactus Jack's Sushi Bar & Japanese Restaurant (that was short lived), and became Cactus Jack's Sports Cantina in 2014. A few years after that, Brody's Steakhouse moved in (from a different location) as a restaurant-within-a-bar moved in. Despite the food being an ongoing issue, it really wasn't about the food, it was a bar that locals seemed to like, the type of honky-tonk that serves up cold beer and has karaoke nights.

Served up, anyway. In November 2019, the restaurant burned to the ground from an improperly disposed cigarette, and there's video evidence to show for it. The general manager vowed to rebuild, though that never happened—Cactus Jack's is now just a memory.

(Adapted and expanded from Carbon-izer.)